Environmental Responsibility

Obj: I can analyze texts by reading closely and answering questions on rhetoric and style.

1. John Francis Ted Talk: Environmental Responsibility

What is your reaction to John Francis and the way he chose to live his life? Explain what you think about the effectiveness of this speech as a whole.

2. Discuss Dillard Excerpt

Describe your initial response to the Dillard excerpt. Be specific. How did it make you feel? What does it make you think about? How would you have felt had you been watching the events from a distance?

Look over your annotations of the text. You’re each going to get a question to specifically focus on and share out about. Then, we will discuss the piece as a whole in the end. 

1. Find images that suggest beauty. Explain the incongruity of finding beauty in a moth.
2. Who was Polyphemus? Explain the allusion to him in the moth’s name? Where else does this come up in the text?
3. What does Dillard’s comparison of the moth to a bear in paragraph 3 (lines 22-30) suggest and how does it suggest that?
4. Find the sequence of causes and effects that lead to the irreconcilable change in the moth. Paraphrase these events.
5. Since Dillard tells about the activities of children and a teacher, what do such subjects suggest about unintended consequences?
6. Explain the significance of the repetition in the last sentence.
7. Dillard relates a childhood event through adult eyes. What does this point of view suggest and how so?
8. Explain the similarities of this seemingly small event in the larger context of human interaction with the natural world.

HW: Choose ONE of the following and write an essay that answers the prompt, and bring a printed copy to class on Monday.

Argument--Write your own description of a similar chain of events focused on another aspect of human interaction with the natural world. Arrange your essay using the Dillard excerpt as a guide. Include specific details, images, and incongruities.

Analysis--Write an essay in which you analyze how Dillard’s rhetorical strategies convey her attitude regarding innocence and interference with natural cycles.

What is our Responsibility to the Natural World?

Obj: I can identify my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I can analyze a visual text and discuss how a photographer can convey a meaning/message through a photograph. I can write an on demand prompt using my personal beliefs and experiences as a guide for writing.

1. Rhetorical Terms Presentations!
2. R.A. Reflection: Review the last two rhetorical analysis essays you wrote. What were their strengths and weaknesses? Which parts of this type of writing comes easily to you, and which parts do you struggle with?
3. Synthesis Self-Assessment

4. We are beginning our Nature Unit today!

• Earth from Apollo 17
• Writing Prompt: What is our responsibility to the natural world?
• Ted Talk: John Francis Walks the Earth

HW: Read and annotate Annie Dillard excerpt. Be ready to discuss the following next time:

• Her attitude toward the subject
• Rhetorical strategies that convey her attitude

Synthesis Essay and New Rhetorical Terms

1. Synthesis Prompt- 45 Minutes
2. New Rhetorical Terms

Divide up rhetorical terms to teach. "Research" definitions and examples. Create a "poster" (could be a keynote) to teach the class!

Rhetorical Terms List:

1. What is the difference between rhetorical function, strategies, devices, questions, and effectiveness?  
2. understatement and litotes
3. extended metaphor and analogy
4. paradox and oxymoron
5. metonymy and synecdoche
6. euphemisms and colloquial language
7. Antecedent
8. didactic  

Tone Words:

1. Sardonic

2. Sanguine

In-class Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Obj: I can write an essay that analyzes how a writer's use of rhetoric achieve a specific purpose.

1. No Red Ink: Growth Quiz!
2. Rhetorical Analysis Essay: 40 Minutes
3. Synthesis Prompt for next time:

Synthesis Question: Is war an inevitable element of human existence? Refer directly to MacArthur’s speech, Eisenhower’s Farewell Address and Margaret Mead’s essay. You may use any other texts you see fit, as well.  After considering these sources, as well as the current state of affairs, develop a position on the question and support your position with multiple sources and your own thinking.

Partner up: One Sentence Summaries

1. Cicero “On Duties”
2. Catiline “To His Army Before Defeat in Battle”
3. Eisenhower “Message to Invasion Troops”
4. Boswell “On War”
5. Eisenhower “Farewell Address”
6. MacArthur “Commencement Address”
7. SIPRI “Patterns of Major Armed Conflicts, 1990-2005”
8. Margaret Mead “Warfare: An Invention--Not a Biological Necessity”
9. Jarecki’s “Why We Fight”
10. Louisa May Alcott’s “Death of a Soldier”

How to prepare? Organize your research, highlight and color code, outline main ideas, find quotes that both support and refute your claims, etc. We will write the essay during class on Friday.

Double Down on Punctuation and Rhetorical Analysis

Obj: I can use scoring criteria to assess the strengths and weaknesses in a rhetorical analysis essay. I can teach the class about rhetorical terms.

1. Grammar growth quiz
2. Death of a Soldier Essay Review

• Partner up! 
• Read sample intro paragraphs. What does each of them do? What are the similarities and differences? Which ones do you like best and why?
• Body paragraphs
• How do I write about different rhetorical devices?
• How do I weave in quotes?
• How do I answer the effect on the reader part of the question?
• How do I choose what to write about?
• Putting it all together: Student sample essays

3. Death of a Soldier Self (or peer?) Assessment--defend your score!

Coming up: Rhetorical Analysis in-class essay and grammar growth quiz (Wednesday)

Synthesis in-class essay (Friday- we will discuss prompt and review texts Wednesday).

Death of a Soldier

Obj: I can read a text closely and outline my ideas for a rhetorical analysis essay

1. More grammar practice
2. Margaret Mead- quick discussion, first reading questions
3. Death of a Soldier- read silently, annotate, create a rhetorical analysis outline

HW: Time yourself (40 minutes) and write a rhetorical analysis for "Death of a Soldier."

Complete Punctuation Practice on No Red Ink- growth quiz next class!

Is war an invention?

1. No Red Ink: We will practice grammar and active vs. passive voice
2. Discuss MacArthur
3. Margaret Mead: Is War an Invention?

HW: First Reading Questions and No Red Ink diagnostic

MacArthur's Commencement Address

ObJ: I  can analyze a text for rhetorical strategies and devices (structure, appeals, logic, and language) to understand how an author conveys his meaning.

Opener: STORY TIME!!

Listen to The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Suess. What is the point of this story? How does Suess develop his message?

1. Read MacArthur’s speech out loud
2. First reading Q’s
3. Second reading Q’s
4. Read Graph
5. How does it compare to MacArthur’s desire to end war?

HW: Create a thesis sentence and OUTLINE for how you would write a rhetorical analysis of MacArthur's speech. Be ready to discuss next time!

Boswell: On War

I  can analyze the structure of a text and how this structure contributes to the text as a whole by tracing the focus of each paragraph.

Please do both of the following on a separate piece of paper and hand in at the end of class:

1. In partners: Second Reading Questions
2. On your own: Multiple Choice

HW: Write a short essay (1 page or less) that analyzes how Bodwell deliberately structures his essay. Is this structure effective in conveying his position on war? Explain.

The Classical Model for Argument  (remember this?)

• Exordium/Introduction: the writer gains the reader’s attention
• Narratio/Background info: the writer gives the context or facts of the case
• Propositio/Proposition: the writer presents his or her thesis or main idea
• Partitio/Main headings or topics: the writer outlines what will follow (*)
• Confirmatio/Supporting arguments: the writer gives evidence to prop up thesis
• Refutatio/Counterargument: the writer anticipates and refutes any objections the opponents may raise
• Peroratio/Conclusion: the writer summarizes the chief arguments, calls for a specific response and/or makes an emotional appeal